Sculpture Exhibition at Sylvester Manor Explores Slavery, History and Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’

A new outdoor presentation of sculpture and installation art is now sited at the historic landscape of Sylvester Manor on Shelter Island for its second annual summer exhibition, titled “Paradise Lost.”

The exhibition features 22 artists, all working on Long Island’s East End. It opened on June 14 and runs through September 14.

Curated by Tom Cugliani, the 2025 exhibition draws inspiration from John Milton’s epic poem “Paradise Lost,” a retelling of the biblical “Fall of Man” and explores the themes of free will, obedience, rebellion, pride, the nature of good and evil, and redemption through grace.

Cugliani said that to create this large exhibition there were a lot of moving parts.

“Sylvester Manor is a historic property on Shelter Island that was with the same family since the 1700s until about 10 years ago,” he said.

But there’s more history. According to the exhibit’s walking tour, the recorded history of Shelter Island begins in 1637, when King Charles I granted the land together with parts of the North and South forks and Connecticut to William Alexander, 1st Earl of Stirling.

After changing hands twice, the island came into the possession of Nathaniel Sylvester in 1651. An Anglo-Dutch merchant, Sylvester settled his family on the island and established a provisioning plantation to support a sugar plantation that he and his brother operated in Barbados. Both plantations, on Long Island and in the Caribbean, exploited the labor of enslaved Indigenous people and West Africans to build the nascent colonial economy and wealth of the Sylvester family.

During the mid-17th century, there was profound political and social turbulence both in Europe and in the New World. King Charles I was executed in 1649, and economic conflict was among countries and territories around the world.

Cugliani said that this history reminded him of the epic poem he read, “Paradise Lost,” which was written by John Milton, who around the same time as King Charles’s execution, was released from prison for his revolutionary alignments and for pamphleteering.

“The poem really resonates with the politics and environment we’re living in,” he said.

Paradise Lost exploits the fall from grace of the rebellious archangel Lucifer. As Satan, he tempts Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge in Paradise, conferring on them free will, self-determination, mortality and the promise of salvation for original sin.

“I see it as an allegory of the government at that time and this exhibition is sort of anchored equally in the history of Shelter Island,” he added. “Slavery is America’s original sin, and this takes into considering all these moving parts, and attempts through landscape, history and poem to address it through visual art.”

On a property that was once a plantation, the artwork of 22 North and South fork artists hopes to inspire people and remind them of the original sin right in our own backyard.

Cugliani said that while the historic nature of the property was the perfect setting for such a thought-provoking piece, the aesthetic is stunning to be in, too.

“It’s a very diverse landscape,” he said, noting the gardens, shoreline of Gardener’s Creek and forests.

One of the artists, Sherry Davis, opens the show with her work, The Woven Gate — a woven arch made out of recycled materials.

Davis said Cugliani asked her to curate something that would be placed right beyond the manor’s fence. Guests will walk through the gate and enter underneath the denim-made arch entering paradise. The gate reflects the agricultural cycles of Sylvester Manor both metaphorically and literally (especially in its use of a repurposed round cattle feeder as an armature).

The sculpture also functions as a gateway, “evoking the gates of both heaven and hell from Paradise Lost.”

“One can see hell in the detritus that comprises the gateway, and at the same time see heaven as the ‘garbage’ is turned into something beautiful,” Davis said. “These two seemingly irreconcilable ways of viewing the sculpture bring to mind Sylvester Manor’s own discordant story, which includes both the ugliness of slavery and the beauty of nature.”

Davis said she had about eight weeks to cut recycled jeans, weave them and complete the structure, all of which happened with the help of about a dozen friends and family.

Cugliani added that other highlights of the exhibit include musician and educator Jeffrey Pegram, a member of the Shinnecock Nation, who contributed a series of immersive audio installations accessible by QR Code throughout the grounds. These ceremonial chants echo Indigenous beliefs in the sacred stewardship of land, asserting that it is bestowed by the creator — not owned or transferred.

Artist Erica-Lynn Huberty installed a text work of quotations from “Paradise Lost,” inscribed on tags of fabric woven through the historic boxwood hedges of Sylvester Manor’s formal garden, thought to be the earliest boxwoods brought from Europe in the 16th century.

Curator-led walking tours with Cugliani will be offered on alternating Sundays throughout the summer. Visitors may also enjoy a self-guided experience by downloading the Paradise Lost, Sculpture @ Sylvester Manor self-guided Walking Tour app, which is available through a QR code posted on site and on the website. Admission is free to the public.

“There’s something magical about Shelter Island,” Davis said. “You drive to the ferry and after this short little ferry trip, you get to the property and it’s so beautiful … There are so many different types of things there that it allows you to stop and travel back in time.”

Participating artists also include Ariel Adkins, Bill Albertini, Roisin Bateman, Marta Baumiller, Catherine Brigham and the students of the Shelter Island Union Free School, Pam Brown, Walter Channing, Andrea Cote, Pierre Cote, Sherry Davis, Robin Gianis, Sandi Haber Fifield, Erica-Lynn Huberty, Ella Mahoney, Stephanie Needham, Jeffrey Pegram, Ned Smyth, Aurelio Torres, Allan Wexler, Annemarie Waugh, Michelle Whittaker, Neisha Terry Young, Marianne Weil and B. Wurtz.